The Story's Only Just Begun
by Samuraiko
Summary: Even after Autor surprises Fakir by writing Uzura back into the real world, Fakir still seems to be hindered by a case of 'writers' block.' But a revelation from Uzura, plus some unexpected encouragement from Duck, may be just the inspiration he needs!
1. The Story's Only Just Begun

_Note: I just finished watching all of PT, and loved it, loved it, loved it. Except how it really ends. Something about that just bothered me, so I started writing this to make myself feel better._

* * *

**The Story's Only Just Begun...**

"_Fakir_..."

The voice seemed to be calling him from far away, and he tossed restlessly in his sleep as he dreamed.

"_Fakir_..."

"_Who... who's calling me_?"

"_Fakir_..."

"Fakir, I did it!"

The front door was abruptly thrown open, and Fakir sat upright with a gasp.

"Who-"

As his brain belatedly kicked into gear, he registered Autor's presence in the doorway, looking as wildly excited as he'd ever seen the other young man.

"Fakir, it _worked_! I didn't think it would, but it did!"

"What... are you talking about?" Fakir said in confusion, yawning and climbing out of bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"Now that Drosselmeyer's influence is gone, I decided to try it, and it _worked_!"

"What did you do?"

"I wrote a character back in!" Autor said with pride, his glasses practically gleaming from the light in his eyes.

Fakir was stunned. "You did what?"

Proudly, Autor turned back toward the doorway and flung out one hand dramatically. "See?"

Confused, Fakir looked at the doorway but didn't see anyone.

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TAT!

Then he looked down.

"Fakir!" piped a familiar voice, and suddenly a little pair of arms was thrown joyfully around the young man's legs in a hug.

"U-Uzura?"

* * *

"But... but how?" 

Fakir could only stare as Uzura sat on the kitchen table, happily staring at him.

Autor grinned smugly and leaned back in his chair, putting his hands behind his head.

"A matter of proper research. Drosselmeyer may have abhorred the logical approach, but in the hands of someone like myself, it seems to have paid off quite nicely. You remember the Storytellers' Oak I told you about?"

Fakir nodded. "It was cut down years ago, and now its roots can only be accessed through that one stone in the field."

"Well, since most people considered it just a regular tree, legend notwithstanding, it was a tricky thing finding out exactly what had happened to it. But I finally was able to track down who had cut it down, and more importantly... what became of it."

Fakir was interested and impressed, in spite of himself. "That must have taken some doing."

The other student shrugged modestly, but the smug grin remained in place. "Not for someone with my determination."

"Anyway, you were saying... about the tree..."

"Yes, well, when the tree was cut down, it was cut down by a very specific person." Autor rested his elbows on the table and leaned forward to stare at Fakir meaningfully. "Someone who didn't want anyone else to know that true storytellers really existed."

"Drosselmeyer..." Fakir breathed. "But to waste something like _that_..."

"There's more," Autor went on. "At least he didn't use it for firewood or building his kitchen furniture, I'll give him that. But for someone as interested in playing with people's lives as he was, he turned it into something else."

Fakir looked confused. "I don't get it... what, did he use it for the paper for writing his stories or something?"

Autor shook his head. "Close... that's what I'd thought originally. But no. He chose to fashion it into something that would do what he wanted. Something whose strings he could also pull, in a way that he couldn't control the tree itself."

And suddenly all the pieces fell into place for Fakir.

"He... turned the tree into..."

His dark green eyes went straight to Uzura, who had been watching their whole conversation in fascination.

"Edel..."

* * *

"That IDIOT!" Fakir was stamping up and down his living room, cursing and swearing at Drosselmeyer at the top of his lungs while Autor and Uzura watched wide-eyed. 

"It wasn't bad enough that he destroyed something as alive and wonderful and mysterious as the Storyteller's Oak, but then he just threw Edel aside as though she were NOTHING! Who does that sanctimonious, megalomaniac _bastard_ think he is?!"

"Calm down, Fakir," Autor said quietly. "I know you're angry, but we can't change the past. All we can do now is create the future."

Fakir whirled around on the young author. "And _you_ wanted to be just like him!"

"You're saying you've never wanted power? Wanted to make sure that what you wanted actually happened?" Autor's voice was soft, but it stopped Fakir in mid-rant, and he dropped into a chair. "The only difference was, you went after it with a sword, while I went after it with a quill."

"What I wanted..." Fakir whispered. "I... I don't know what I want any more."

Autor frowned, rested his elbows on the table, and laced his fingers together. "That's not true, either. You know what you want..."

He turned to look outside, his eyes distant.

Fakir closed his eyes against a sudden rush of pain.

Uzura, however, followed Autor's glance toward a small, sparkling pond. "You mean Duck zura?"

"Yes, Uzura. What Fakir wants, more than anything else in the world, even more so than protecting people, is Duck... and Duck's happiness."

Fakir got up abruptly and turned away to face the fireplace, but Autor went on, his voice low.

"You see, Duck has only ever wanted things for other people. She wanted Rue to be happy... she wanted Mytho to be happy... she even wanted Fakir to be happy. She willingly spared others from Mytho's heart shards, giving up everything in the end. Their happiness... was her happiness."

Fakir gave a low groan and buried his face in his hands, and at last Autor turned to look at him.

"That's why you wrote that ending for her. You didn't know what you wanted, but you could give Duck what she wanted. She wanted a happy ending for everybody."

* * *

"Why Uzura?" Fakir asked later on, when he'd gotten his turbulent emotions back under control. Uzura, glad to be back, had escaped outside to go look for Duck. "Why not any of the others? Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I'm just as glad to not have Uzura under that bastard's control." 

"Well, as a Storyteller, I felt a strong affinity with the tree," Autor replied, sipping at his tea and gazing implacably back at Fakir. "The prince and princess are enjoying their happily-ever-after. Uzura doesn't have any reason to be stuck in Drosselmeyer's world, other than to serve his whims."

He shrugged elegantly, and then stood up. "Besides... for what it's worth... I owed you one."

"Me?" Fakir said in amazement. "For what?"

"I knew that great things could be done with this power, but I had no idea as to the scale. You showed me just how much could be done with it, for better or for worse."

Autor strolled over to the door, then he glanced back over his shoulder at Fakir. "The question now, is... what are _you_ going to do about it? Just sit and mope, and throw away all the training you went through?"

The other young man looked away, and Autor shook his head and sighed. "Pity... I'd have thought that besting Drosselmeyer would be proof enough for you that you can have what you want, but I guess I was wrong."

"Bastard." Fakir looked back at Autor, but the faint grin playing around his mouth told the other student that he wasn't really angry. "You really _are_ a manipulative pain in the-"

"Such gratitude," Autor mocked, sweeping a bow. "Anyway, I'll leave you be... I have writing of my own to do. Good luck, Fakir."

_To be continued_...


	2. Unexpected Inspiration

_Note: I honestly don't know how long this little story of mine is going to go - talk about making it up as you go! But every now and again I just get an urge to write, so we'll see how this turns out._

* * *

**The Story's Only Just Begun**

_"I love you, Fakir..."_

_"Duck!"_

_Fakir reached for her, but no matter how fast he ran, he couldn't quite seem to reach her..._

_"Duck! Don't go!"_

"Quack!"

Fakir came awake with a gasp, his hands still half-reaching out for the girl in his dream, when he noticed Duck perched on the bedpost, quacking at him. Apparently she had been trying to get his attention for some time. A quick glance at the clock over the mantel showed it was just after seven. Time to get up and begin his daily chores.

"Five more minutes," he grumbled, turning and burying his face in the pillow. Duck gave a huffy quack and stormed off.

For a few moments, he thought she'd gone back outside and closed his eyes again, trying to recapture the dream he'd been having.

_

* * *

_

_And she'd been saying something..._

* * *

RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-A-TAT! 

With a startled yell, Fakir lunged away from the unexpected sound, got tangled up in his sheets, and fell to the floor with a thud and a muffled curse. When he finally managed to extricate himself, he looked up and saw Uzura standing on his bed looking down at him, with Duck nonchalantly perched on top of her head.

"Duck says it's time to get up zura!" Uzura announced brightly, banging on her drum once again.

"Why you little..." Fakir growled, struggling to his feet and glaring down at them both.

"QUACK!" Duck stood up on Uzura's head and gave him her best wide-eyed innocent look.

"Duck says don't be mad zura!"

"Don't be mad?! You just scared ten years off my life-" He paused, then blinked. "Uzura, what do you mean, 'Duck says don't be mad'?"

"Duck says don't be mad zura!" Uzura repeated, staring up at Fakir.

"You... can _understand_ Duck?" His eyes went from Uzura to the little duck on top of Uzura's head, watching him with wide blue eyes. "Duck, when did you and I first meet?"

Duck tilted her head and gave him a confused look, but began quacking in response.

"Duck says when you were being mean zura!"

Fakir's legs gave out and he sat on the floor with a thump.

"But... how? How is this possible?"

Uzura watched him with unblinking eyes, but Fakir ignored her, his mind racing. He knew that somehow Karon had worked a miracle in even creating Uzura from the remains of Edel, but this was beyond anything he or Duck had ever seen Uzura do.

"Did... did Autor do this, too? Or did I...?"

He stared down at his hands, still showing the faint inkstains from his writing efforts the day before.

"_Could_ I...?"

* * *

As he mulled over this new revelation during breakfast, he noticed that Duck was watching him intently. While part of him was thrilled that Duck at least had some way now of expressing herself, another part of him was just horrendously depressed at the reinforcement of all Duck had lost. 

Duck gave an odd little frown, then she flapped her wings so that she landed on the table. Lifting up her wings, she began dancing like the ballerina she had once been, but in mid-pirouette, her webbed feet slipped on the newly polished table, and she slid right off the edge to land on the floor in a heap.

That startled a laugh out of Fakir, which was quickly checked as he bent down to make sure Duck hadn't hurt herself with her fall.

"You okay?"

"Quack."

"What did you do that for?"

"Quack!" She tilted her head, giving him the martyred look he so often had given her in the past.

"Duck says you should laugh more zura."

"Give me one good reason why I should," he grumbled, staring moodily into his coffee.

"Duck says that you're handsomer when you smile zura."

Fakir blushed, and Duck gave a laughing little quack.

"Shut up..."

* * *

Later on that afternoon, Fakir went to sit by the pond and write for a little while. Uzura tagged along, and watched as Duck swam happily on the water. Fakir, however, had to explain to Uzura for the umpteenth time that throwing water at Duck wasn't going to turn her back into a girl. 

"But why not zura?"

"Because she doesn't have the pendant anymore. That's why she has to stay as a duck."

"But that's sad zura."

Fakir sighed. "Yes, Uzura, it is. But that's the way it has to be."

"Quack..."

"Duck says stop moping zura."

Fakir shot Duck a glare that he didn't really mean. "You stay out of this!"

"QUACK!" She turned and swam off indignantly, presenting her tailfeathers to Fakir in a decidedly explicit manner.

"Duck says-"

"I don't think I want to know," Fakir cut her off hurriedly.

* * *

Much later that night, Fakir was blowing out his candle to prepare for bed when he looked over and saw Uzura sleeping on her little cot. He glanced over to the corner where Duck's little washtub was and saw her asleep as well, her head under her wing as she slept. 

For a moment, he smiled sadly, then he blew out the candle, then he stretched out on his bed. He couldn't get comfortable, though, and he rolled onto his stomach and hid his face in his pillow.

"It's not fair," he whispered to himself. "Where is _my_ happy ending? Why did everyone get one but me?"

Before he could stop himself, he drove his fist into the pillow, striking it again and again as the tears he'd been keeping inside for so long finally began to fall.

"Quack..."

The quack was so soft that he wasn't even sure he'd heard it, but the soft warmth of feathers against the back of his neck made him stop hitting the pillow.

He paused before turning around, and saw Duck land lightly on the covers beside him, her own eyes filled with tears.

"Duck says I love you zura."

"What?" He sat bolt upright as his gaze shot to Uzura, who was now sitting up and rubbing her eyes. "What did you just say, Uzura?"

Duck waddled over, stretched out her wings, and put them as far as she could around Fakir's waist, which wasn't all that far.

"Quack..." she said again, and Uzura looked at Fakir.

"Duck says I love you zura."

Abruptly he was aware of Duck nuzzling her beak against his cheek, and he looked down at her in surprise.

"What are you doing?"

"Quack..."

"Duck says don't cry zura."

Fakir reached up and felt tears on his cheeks, then giving in to impulse, he scooped Duck up in his arms and held her close.

"Sorry, I just couldn't help it."

"Quack..."

"Duck says it's okay zura."

For a long time they sat there, holding one another, then he felt Duck poke her beak against his chest and look up at him expectantly.

"What?" he asked her.

"Quack!"

"Duck says you're forgetting something zura."

"Forgetting something? Like what?"

"QUACK!"

Uzura blinked. "Duck says you're an idiot zura."

Fakir laughed for what felt like the first time in ages, falling onto his back and holding Duck to his chest. "Oh... I love you, too, Duck."

"Quack." Duck leaned her head against his chest in satisfaction.

"Are you going to be all lovey-dovey with Duck zura?"

"Shut up!" Then he stopped, and getting up off the bed, still holding Duck, he walked over to Uzura's cot and hugged her.

"Never mind, Uzura. You can say whatever you want."

"Quack."

"Duck says you say that _now_ zura..."

_To be continued_...


End file.
